What Does "Future State" Actually Mean in Business Consulting?
"Future state" is one of those consulting terms that sounds self-explanatory until you try to build one. Then suddenly it's not clear whether you're describing a vision, a plan, a process map, all three, or something else entirely.
In its simplest term, “Future State”, sometimes called “Desired State”, is a documented picture of how your business will operate after a transformation is complete to improve the current state. It answers the question: what does “better” actually look like in operational terms? While this can be, and often should be, influenced by a mission statement or a goal, it is not the same. A future state map is an operational model that captures the process or processes across a portion or the entirety of an organization. Much like the current state deliverables, it can be a combination of process maps and documentation, but, unlike the current state, it can also include potential tools or grey space (grey space meaning functions where a tool could assist in the process, but without recommending or promoting a specific brand or product to fill that gap).
Let’s first focus on what a future state map is NOT. It’s not a vision statement (“we want to be the best in the industry at X”), it’s not a project plan (“we’ll implement Y by Q3 by onboarding 3 new personnel”), and it’s not a wishlist (“faster, cheaper, better”). This isn’t to say that a Future State can’t be influenced by these, and honestly they should provide some direction for what the future state could look like in order to accomplish these goals. But, a future state, at its core, is just an operational model that the company would like to get to, and is not currently at - it’s not aspirational, it’s designed and specific.
Given that, what does a delivered future state document actually contain? It usually contains a combination of redesigned process flows showing how work will move through the organization, defined roles and responsibilities in the new model, technology and tools that will support the new way of working, key metrics that will indicate success, and a description of what the customer or end-user experience will be. Each future state document is different depending on the needs and desires of the company, same as with developing a current state document. Comprehensive future state documents can be broken out into different time horizons, especially when combined with a phased transition plan.
As I noted earlier, future states are based on an understanding of the current state; while you can technically build a future state map without a current state map, it is basically designing in a vacuum. Unless you’re spinning up a new, siloed division or subsidiary, that design process tends to lead to various pain points and foundational failures. Once you’ve built both your current state map and your future state map, the gap between them provides you with the scope of the transformation needed to achieve the desired state. The more honest your current state is, the more realistic your future state will be, and the more implementable your transition plan will be.
Getting this right matters - teams that don’t have a clear future state will fill the gap with their own interpretations, often leading to data silos, conflicting processes, and bottlenecks. This is another reason why building the future state off of the current state is so important, so that the teams feel involved and heard in the development of the current state; this helps them to feel reasonably assured that the future state map takes the reality of their day-to-day into account, and isn’t just a unilateral change from leadership that doesn’t feel grounded or achievable. A documented future state that gives a conrete operational blueprint, and helps everyone understand what the common goal is helps align all stakeholders and makes it much easier to avoid scope creep during the transition.
Whereas the current state helps you understand where you are currently, and helps ground short-term and mid-term decisions in reality, the payoff of the future state map is that you can more easily see which strategic decisions and operational changes help get you closer to the future state map, and which take you further away. This can help with mid-term and long-term decisions, as well as give a general idea of areas to focus on improving first. Before moving forward, do you actually know which direction you want to go?
— Basile
